Specifying Your News Server

Several shell parameter variables are used to set values used by network applications, such as Web browsers or newsreaders. NNTPSERVER is used to set the value of a remote news server accessible on your network. If you are using an ISP, the ISP usually provides a news server you can access with your newsreader applications. However, you first have to provide your newsreaders with the Internet address of the news server. This is the role of the NNTPSERVER variable. News servers on the Internet usually use the NNTP protocol. NNTPSERVER should hold the address of such a news server. For many ISPs, the news server address is a domain name that begins with nntp. The following example assigns the news server address nntp.myservice.com to the NNTPSERVER shell variable. Newsreader applications automatically obtain the news server address from NNTPSERVER. Usually, this assignment is placed in the shell initialization file, .bash_profile, so that it is automatically set each time a user logs in.